Cold Fear

It's just a bit too flawed in its execution and weak in the storytelling department to make it anything truly terrifying. A reasonable effort, just don't expect it to give you really horrible nightmares. [Official UK Xbox Magazine]

Taken in isolation, there's no denying Cold Fear's panache - RenderWare has rarely been used to such strong visual effect - and there is a fair helping of survival horror entertainment to be had here, it's just that you have to dig through several layers of frustration to get at it. [Apr 2005, p.96]

Second-string sturvival horror marked by puppetlike physics and way too many exploding barrels. [May 2005, p.124]

A spooky story to play through, and it doesn't hold anything back in terms of gameplay.

The whole thing just feels a bit half-baked, with moody but unimaginative environments, done-to-death one-dimensional characters, exceptionally tired gameplay mechanics that favours basic A-to-B object collection rather than injecting anything even vaguely resembling a puzzle and a combat system that's at best functional, and at worst unhelpful.

Although the Darkworks gets points for an original setting, the plot is just shark food.

As survivor horror games go, Cold Fear is lukewarm. The graphics attempt to mask a mediocre plot and flawed action, but it does succeed in making your skin crawl--in a good way.

Fails to establish any real mood or atmosphere, and just ends up being boring. [May 2005, p.110]

Unfortunately, it's only half a great game. Clocking in at around 6 hours, it might be the shortest adventure-horror game out there and has almost zero replay value.

There are plenty of scares to be had, and the emphasis on shooting things in the head (and the resulting gore) makes this a fabulous guilty pleasure.

It's hard not to like Cold Fear for what it's trying to do, but it's also hard not to see the glaring errors that it makes along the way. [Apr 2005, p.119]

Atmospherically, Cold Fear is derivative and predictable, which is a shame considering that it is, at times, an enjoyable action game.

Some nifty gameplay mechanics and nasty enemies keep it from being an also-ran, while a little too much repetitive exploration and a short story keep it from being a contender.

With the exception of the first hour or so, in which you are constantly scavenging for ammo, the gameplay is pretty solid throughout, but never highly engaging, having neither interesting puzzles nor a large variety of enemies.

Yet another substandard attempt to make a splash in the shallow Xbox survival horror pool. Toss this one overboard.

A short game and might make some players feel sea sick. The lack of a map does prolong the experience for perhaps the wrong reasons and the camera angles take a little getting used to.

In its current form the game is an enjoyable and visually accomplished, but ultimately forgettable experience which plays like little more than a prequel to the next in the series.

A leaden feel of backtracking and other nags here and there tie the game down from anything memorable. [May 2005, p.54]

A sub-par survival horror game, plain and simple. Everything about it is appalling. The gameplay, the audio, the camera... the only thing remotely good about this game is the graphics, and they're not even that good. This is a horror game, but it's not even the least bit scary.

Feels as though it could have come straight from the scenes of a '80s B-movie horror flick, with dry characters and gameplay that repeats itself to no end.

What we're left with is a game with a cool concept and a real sense of atmosphere that is drowned out by disappointment and frustration. Cold Fear could have been so much better had it built on the positives with a safe, more accessible control system and a few more hours on the design table.

It's so thoroughly dull and repetitive that there aren't any stand out moments, it often makes no sense and the terrible camera and control systems ruin things further.